to work and weary the several parts of the organism as to give them a proportionally equal need of rest at the same moment; and, to wake early and feel ready to rise, a fair and equal start of the sleepers should be secured; and the wise self-manager should not allow a drowsy feeling of the consciousness or weary senses, or an exhausted muscular system, to beguile him into the folly of going to sleep again when once he has been aroused. After a very few days of self-discipline, the man who resolves n t to doze, that is, not to allow some sleepy part of his body to keep him in bed after his brain has once awakened, will find himself, without knowing why, an early riser.-The Lancet. PAPER FROM WOOD. The advent of wood pulp wrought a marked change in paper manufacture as soon as this material became known as a substitute, in part, for rags and other stock. It is admitted by nearly all the manufacturers and users of paper that a proper proportion of wood pulp is of great benefit to the sheet, both in giving it "body" and in adapting it for taking ink. A proportion of wood, practically determined, does not impair the strength of the paper, but adds to its value. Chemical wood pulp, while retaining the best fiber, costs double the price of ground pulp, which is now more generally used. Wood is certainly the cheapest of all paper stock, and is the easiest to convert into pulp. Improvements in the manufacture of pulp, as well as in'its application to paper making, are following one another in rapid succession, and at the rate of advancement for the last five years, we may soon expect to see a very respectable sheet of paper made from the natural stick of wood, and by a continuous process, in one establishment. But wood pulp has other uses aside from paper making. Already it has been transformed into barrels, casks, pails and other wooden ware, while boxes, cornices, picture frames and papier-mache articles are successfully made from this material in various parts of the country. In the West it is claimed that the use of weather boarding may be avoided by substituting a covering made of wood pulp, and it is said not only to operate to good advantage for this purpose, but also to work well for doors. At first it was thought that nothing but poplar, or "popple," as it is sometimes called in New England, would answer for pulp, on account of the peculiar and desirable whiteness which this wood possesses; but to-day we see many other kinds in successful use. Buckeye has been adapted in the West to a considerable extent, and although it is not so strong as poplar, its fiber is very white. In New England, besides poplar, spruce, pine, chestnut, basswood, fir, hemlock and cedar have been found suitable for various kinds of paper. The difference between the resinous and non-resinous woods is very marked as regards this industry, the latter being adapted for white paper only, while the former serves well for colored. The Allen machines are arranged to handle all kinds of wood with equal facility, though the different woods grind very differently on the same stones. Willow makes the longest fiber of any wood when thus ground; basswood comes next, and then poplar. Spruce grinds harder and firmer than the former wood. Hemlock, cedar and fir grind about alike, though hemlock is rather the freest in pulping. Maple is quite hard to grind, but its fibre is shorter than either spruce or pine. Poplar and buckeye, when pulped, remain white for a long time, whereas the other woods change their color, birch turning pink, maple purple, and basswood reddish. The aggregate product of ground wood pulp in the United States at the present time is over 200 tons per day. FRUITS AS FOOD AND MEDICINE. Of all the fruits with which we are blessed, the peach is the most delicious and digestible. There is nothing more palatable wholesome and medicinal than good ripe peaches. They should be ripe, but not over ripe and half rotten; and of this kind they may make a part of either meal, or be eaten between meals; but it is better to make them part of the regular meals. It is a mistaken idea that no fruit should be eaten at breakfast. It would be far better if our people would eat less bacon and grease at breakfast and more fruit. In the morning there is an acrid state of the secretions, and nothing is so well calculated to correct this as cooling sub-acid fruits, such as peaches, apples, etc. Still, most of us have been taught that eating fruit before breakfast is highly dangerous. How the idea originated I do not know, but it is certainly a great error, contrary to both reason and facts. The apple is one of the best of fruits. Baked or stewed apples will generally agree with the most delicate stomach and are an excellent medicine in many cases of sickness. Green or half-ripe apples stewed and sweetened are pleasant to the taste, cooling, nourishing and laxative, far superior, in many cases, to the abominable doses of salts and oil usually given in fever and other diseases. Raw apples and dried apples stewed are better for constipation than liver pills. Oranges are very acceptable to most stomachs, having all the advantages of the acid alluded to; but the orange juice alone should be taken, rejecting the pulp. The same may be said of lemons, pomegranates, and all that class. Lemonade is the best drink in fevers, and when thickened with sugar is better than syrup of squills and other nauseaus in many cases of cough. Tomatoes act on the liver and bowels, and are much more pleasant and safe than blue mass and "liver regulators." The juice should be used alone rejecting the skins. The small seeded fruits, such as blackberries, figs, raspberries, currants, and strawberries, may be classed among the best foods and medicines. The sugar in them is nutritious, the acid is cooling and purifying, and the seeds are laxative. We would be much the gainers if we would look more to our orchards and gardens for our medicines, and less to our drug stores. To cure fever or act on the kidneys, no fabrifuge or diuretic is superior to watermelon, which may with very few exceptions, be taken in sickness and health in almost unlimited quantities, not only without injury, but with positive benefit. But in using them, the water, or juice, should be taken, excluding the pulp; and the melon should be fresh and ripe, but not over ripe and stale. THE RIGIDITY OF THE EARTH. Sir Wm. Thompson recently delivered a lecture in Hopkins Hall, Baltimore, on "The Rigidity of the Earth." The object of the lecture was to show that the hypothesis to which the geologists have so rigidly clung, that the interior of the earth is continuously liquid, is not true. The theory is based upon the assumption that the deeper down we bore the warmer the temperature, until finally, at the depth of about 50 or 60 miles from the surface, the increase being constant and at the rate so far as observed, the temperature is far above the boiling point. This the lecturer characterized as a very large assumption upon very small premises. He endeavored to show that the hypothesis of those geologists who contended that the earth has been habitable for millions and millions of years is contrary to known physical laws, and then showed that the rigity of the earth, as demonstrated by the effect of the tides, could not be maintained if there was only a thin crust and a large liquid interior. The lecturer contended that the interior was not a continuous liquid mass, but probably consisted of mortared rocks, with limited spaces f liquid matter, so arranged as to support the exterior. Earthquakes he regarded as probably due to the falling in of solid matter, and their occurrence as evidence of this theory. OBITUARY. E. H. GIBBS, A. M., M. D. Died January 5th, 1885. Dr. Gibbs was born at Ovid, on Seneca Lake, N. Y., in the year 1823. He was a graduate of Union College, although his first collegiate year was spent at Geneva College. He studied medicine at the Buffalo Medical College, under Drs. Frank Hamilton and Austin Flint. Upon taking his degree, he went to France, where he studied for three years under the greatest physicians and surgeons of the time. Returning to America he practiced medicine successfully for many years. In 1871 he became the partner of Dr. W. W. Hall, the founder of the JOURNAL OF HEALTH, and after Dr. Hall's death, in 1876, took entire charge of the JOURNAL, which he conducted with excellent judgment until the beginning of the present year. QUININE AND THE HEARING. It may not be generally known that the free use of the common remedy, quinine, is attended with danger to the ear. Dr. Greene has recently published a paper on the subject in a medical journal. His conclusions are: 1. Clinical experience the world over is, that quinine occasionally produces serious injury to the ears. 2. From our present knowledge, both clinical and experimental, we are justified in asserting that the action of quinine upon the ears is to produce congestion of the labyrinth and tympanum and sometimes distinct inflammation, with permanent tissue-changes. 3. The action of the drug upon the ears should always be considered in prescribing it, and changes in the ears due to existing or previous inflammation of those organs, constitute a contra-indication to the medicine in large doses or for a long time, except under urgent circumstances. 4. Where large and continuous doses are absolutely necessary, an occasional intermission of the administration is desirable, if possible, to diminish the risk to the ears. ON THE MISSISSIPPI. Of the scenery of the lower Mississippi there is not much to be said; it is absolutely flat on either bank. There is the novelty to northern eyes of gliding between fields of waving sugar cane, alternated with acres of orange groves, as long as we like in the State of Louisiana; but once that State is passed and we are traveling through Tennessee and Mississippi States there is nothing to redeem the general ugliness. The boat stops at numberless small landings with strange names, to take or put off passengers or freight-- a bale or two of cotton, sometimes sugar. Occasionally these little settlements are verdant, prosperous-looking places, with cheery people to watch the boat coming in; but more often they are such as remind one of Dickens' "Eden;" the yellow ague-worn faces, the weary, listless air, telling of the fatal malaria that dwells in these water-soaked lands. Every now and again some spot of interest in connection with the rebellion comes in view-Baton Rogue, Natchez, Vicksburg, all large, handsome cities -but to specify the points of historic interest would carry us beyond the limits of this paper. Dickens has told us of the sluggish, filthy river, whose turbid and lonesome waters brought disease and death to the poor settler at Edeu. But, though he has in no way exaggerated the foul appearance of the water and believed in calling it filthy, he was correct; it is probably more free from actual filth than many a river of bright, running water. Its appearance is as dirty a hundred |